Public Honours

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they consider references to the British Empire in public honours to be appropriate in the post-imperial age.

Lord Williams of Mostyn: The Government recognise that some people think the name anachronistic but the order itself is generally regarded with affection by a great many people.

Copyright Libraries

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Where are the recognised copyright libraries; and which of them they consider to be appropriate to serve Northern Ireland.

Lord Williams of Mostyn: There are six recognised copyright libraries. These are the British Library, the Bodleian Library (Oxford), the University Library (Cambridge), the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and the Library of Trinity College in Dublin.
	Which is most convenient to users in Northern Ireland will depend on particular circumstances. In 1997 the then Department of National Heritage, Scottish Office, Welsh Office and Department of Education for Northern Ireland issued a joint consultation paper on legal deposit which included questions relating to the use of legal deposit material in Northern Ireland. The responses revealed almost no demand for a separate legal deposit library in Northern Ireland.

Special Advisers

The Earl of Northesk: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What were (a) the mean average and (b) the median average gross salary for special advisers (1) within each of the special adviser pay bands and (2) overall for (i) 1998–99, (ii) 1999–2000, (iii) 2000–01 and (iv) 2001–02.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: The information requested for the relevant years is:
	
		
			  1 December 1998 1 April 1999 1 April 2000 1 April 2001 
			  (£) (£) (£) (£) 
			 Median of Band A 32,300 35,795 35,501 36,566 
			 Mean of Band A 32,241 33,463 35,834 37,458 
			 Median of Band B 48,100 45,283 48,024 49,465 
			 Mean of Band B 47,302 46,513 48,461 53,149 
			 Median of Band C 63,000 66,306 66,642 71,910 
			 Mean of Band C 64,778 67,885 68,489 72,074 
			 Overall Median 41,350 46,671 48,024 47,994 
			 Overall Mean 43,717 49,014 50,167 52,397

Special Advisers

The Earl of Northesk: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the answer by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 2 July 1999 (HC Deb, cols. 283–84), whether they will provide the information given in that answer in respect of the number of special advisers in each pay band, broken down by department, for (a) 2000-01 and (b) 2001-02.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: The Government have already announced the introduction of a new pay system for special advisers from June 2001 based on individual job evaluation. Information on the outcome of this review will be provided once the process of job evaluation is complete. The figures for 1 April 2000 and 1 April 2001 are as follows:
	
		
			 Department 1 April 2001 1 April 2002 
			  A B C A B C 
			 No. 10(1) 6 8 7 6 11 8 
			 Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 2 – – 2 – – 
			 Cabinet Office(2) – 2 1 – 2 1 
			 Chief Whip's Office 1 2 – 1 2 – 
			 Culture, Media and Sport 1 – 1 1 – 1 
			 Defence – 2 – – 2 – 
			 Education and Employment(3) 3 1 – 3 1 1 
			 Environment, Transport and the Regions(4) – 4 1 – 4 1 
			 Foreign and Commonwealth Office – 1 1 – 1 1 
			 Health – 1 1 – 1 1 
			 Home Office – 2 – – 2 – 
			 International Development 2 – – 2 – – 
			 Leader of the House of Lords – 2 – – 2 – 
			 Lord Chancellor's Department – – 1 – – 1 
			 Northern Ireland Office – 1 – – 1 – 
			 President of the Council 1 1 – 1 1 – 
			 Scotland Office 1 1 – 1 1 – 
			 Social Security – 1 1 – 1 1 
			 Trade and Industry(5) – 2 – – 2 – 
			 HM Treasury(6) 1 2 1 1 2 1 
			 Wales Office 2 – – 1 1 – 
		
	
	(1) Plus Jonathan Powell and Alastair Campbell who were paid outside the structure.
	(2) Plus Keith Hellawell who was paid outside the pay structure.
	(3) Includes two part-time posts.
	(4) Includes one part-time post in April 2001 and two part-time posts in April 2000.
	(5) Includes one part-time post.
	(6) Plus five members of the Council of Economic Advisers (one in band A and four in band C of which one is part-time) in April 2001 and plus three members of the Council of Economic Advisers (one in band A and two in band C of which one is part-time).

Jet Skis: Safety

Lord Fearn: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What further safety consultation, if any, they intend to bring forward regarding jet ski water sport.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: Her Majesty's Goverment are committed to continuously improving maritime safety. The approach adopted for personal watercraft safety is to pursue a programme of education rather than regulation. Along with national sporting bodies, manufacturers, local authorities and other water safety organisations, they are conducting an ongoing safety campaign to encourage the users of personal water craft (including jet skis) and other powered craft to get better training to make them aware of their responsibilities to other water users. Foremost is a code of conduct for non-regulated pleasure vessels, produced as a series of waterproof pocket-sized cards, which is publicised at national events such as boat shows and is freely available to members of the public.

Nuclear Waste: Transportation through Merseyside and Lancashire

Lord Fearn: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How much nuclear waste is transported on average through (1) Merseyside and (2) Lancashire each year; and
	How much nuclear waste is transported on average by air over (1) Merseyside and (2) Lancashire each year.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: Information of this nature is not held centrally.

Cabinet Committees

Baroness Serota: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the current membership of each Cabinet committee.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: The Prime Minister has revised the composition of Cabinet committees in the light of the recent machinery of government changes, and has also established three new committees: a sub-committee, CJS(IT), on information technology in the criminal justice system; MISC20 on social and economic aspects of migration; and MISC21 on the Government's response to parliamentary modernisation. MISC16, having fulfilled its specific remit to review the practice on tackling illegal working and policy on managed migration, has been wound up. These issues will now be taken forward by MISC20. The full list of committees, their terms of reference and their membership has been placed in the Library of the House and will shortly be available on the Cabinet Office website (www.cabinet-office.gov.uk).

Minority Language Television

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they are currently promoting training for the development of minority language based television, radio and film programmes; if so, how the training scheme was made available; what languages are benefiting; and to what extent.

Baroness Blackstone: The Radio Authority is currently supporting a variety of training through the Access Radio pilot project. The information is shown in the table:
	
		
			 Radio Station Language(s) benefiting Training 
			 All FM Urdu, Bangla and Hindi (possibly also Vietnamese, Cantonese and Somali) Volunteers receive informal training and mentoring. Radio production trainees to receive formal training. 
			  
			 Awaz FM Urdu and Punjabi Volunteers receive training in radio presentation, production and adminstration skills. 
			  
			 Bradford Community Broadcasting Urdu, Punjabi, Italian, Ukrainian (possibly also Gujarati, Farsi, Bengali and Polish) Local volunteers receive a range of radio training courses. 
			  
			 Desi Radio Punjabi Training courses involve up to ten trainees at a time. 
			  
			 Radio Faza Urdu and Punjabi with some Hindi, Bengali, Mirpuri, Gujarati and Arabic languages. Basic training on use of equipment etc. as well as some structured training. 
			  
			 South Radio (pilot has not yet commenced) Bangladeshi, Syletti, Hebrew, Yiddish, Kurdish and Turkish The group hopes to provide training for programme contributors. 
		
	
	Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the audio-visual industries for the UK, provides training for television and film. Skillset is jointly funded by the DFES and industry.
	It is in the process of establishing a Skillset Cymru which will directly support courses in Wales in both English and the Welsh language.
	In Scotland, education and training in Gaelic in the audio-visual sector is provided at tertiary level at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on Skye where vocationally oriented HNC and HND courses are offered.

Charities: Voluntary Registration

Baroness Rendell of Babergh: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether there are any changes in the current policy on the voluntary registration of charities.

Lord Filkin: The current regulations which made registration voluntary for charities connected with a number of religious bodies expire on 1 October 2002. I am today laying a new statutory instrument to extend those regulations until 1 October 2007. The Performance and Innovation Unit, as part of its review of the legal framework for charities, is considering the matter of exception and its report will be published in due course. The extension of the regulations will allow time for the implementation of any changes which the report may recommend.

Chapelcross Power Station

The Earl of Mar and Kellie: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How the generating capacity of Chapelcross power station (75MW) will be replaced, given the imminent closure of that power station.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: It is for the market, not government, to decide if and by what means the generating capacity of Chapelcross should be replaced. Lena

State Retirement Pension: Postponement of Receipt

Lord Vinson: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Hollis of Heigham on 13 May (WA 24), whether, when offering old age pensioners the opportunity to postpone their pension until 70, they will make clear that the pensioner will not recover the pension forgone until they reach the age of 84, beyond their estimated expectation of life.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham: People defer taking their state pension for a variety of reasons and it is their choice. We have advised in our literature that people who are considering deferring should seek independent financial advice.

The State of the Countryside Report 2002

The Duke of Montrose: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Why they failed to provide the Printed Paper Office with original copies of The State of the Countryside report 2002 in time for the Oral Question on the report on 13 June.

Lord Whitty: The State of the Countryside report 2002 is a Countryside Agency publication. It was announced by way of a Press Release on 28 May and was freely available on the Countryside Agency's website from this date.
	The final fully bound report is not due to be published until early July and a copy will be placed in the Printed Paper Office at that time.

DEFRA: Regulatory Reform

Baroness Byford: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What proof they have that their efforts to reduce the burden of regulation, as identified in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' departmental report 2002, are successful.

Lord Whitty: The departmental report identified the mechanisms by which we try to minimise the burden of regulation. These include the necessary checks and balances required under the regulatory impact system to ensure that regulation is necessary and proportionate and the risks, options, benefits and costs are fully explored. Such procedures are subject to review and refinement to ensure that all relevant issues are considered.
	Implementation of the majority of the Red Tape Review recommendations, and those in the Better Regulation Task Force report on environmental regulations and farmers can be regarded as a success since they addressed issues identified by industry. Money has been saved in direct costs to industry as well as time saved in paperwork; for example, by implementing a simplified procedure for granting "own use" approvals for imports of pesticides with a reduced fee, by streamlining intervention procedures, by better co-ordinated cattle inspections and the introduction of electronic IACS forms. The abolition of glucosinate testing of oilseed rape will save industry £1 million. From questionnaires completed by farmers participating in the 2002 slaughter premium scheme, 47 per cent of those returning the questionnaires found the form better than the previous year, whilst only 2 per cent found it worse. Better forms play an important role in reducing the administrative burden on farmers.
	More recently the department contributed 59 proposals for regulatory reform in the Government's regulatory reform action plan published in February 2002, covering all aspects of DEFRA's responsibility. Many of these will be implemented in the next two years; others will be in the longer term. They involve changes to EC legislation, reform of some domestic legislation, major reviews of whole areas of enforcement, inspection and information handling to ease the burden of compliance.
	While some regulation is necessary, we have a long-term strategy (2007) to introduce risk-based environment regulation across all sectors including agriculture. New risk-assessments, standardised permits, better reporting arrangements will keep charges down and reduce the bureaucracy of regulation. We are working towards an integrated solution to the problems of regulation and agriculture by developing a whole farm approach. This is a long-term strategy that will be developed in close consultation with industry and other stakeholders.